I can tell you straight away where you are going wrong with this method. When you go back to bed after a sleep or nap, don't fall asleep if you wish to induce a WILD. The body is dying to get the REM and goes into sleep mode while the mind remains aware. Hence the saying: Mind awake, body asleep.

Ok, here's a more or less concise guide that I have used to help others before and why it might help:

Wake up earlier than usual and keep active during the day. Have a nap or sleep in the evening when you are tired.

You can nap for two hours in the evening and then stay awake for an hour and a half before induction, or, you can go to bed late and sleep to wake up between 4am and 6am to induce. Depending on your sleep inertia symptoms, you should stay up for a little while after waking up if you are using the deferred method. Try to balance out the sensation of feeling sleepy and alert.

When you go down to induce the WILD, your body will enter the REM stage that it was previously deprived of at the first opportunity. In other words, it will slip into that stage in under 10 minutes (like in narcolepsy) rather than the usual 90 minute wait. You see how you have already acquired a shortcut here? If you are physiologically primed, the body will slip into REM atonia (paralysis) so quick that the mind won't have time to fall asleep with it. The body won't wait for the mind this time. Often, when I do it, there is no perceived lapse of consciousness. It's a wake-initiated lucid dream with a perceived separation from the body.

Now, for this to work, you need to resist any urges to move...but don't worry, because you are primed for the experience, these urges won't be strong enough or won't bother you for long.

Your job is to relax. It helps if you focus on an imagined object or a mantra in your head in order to shift the focus away from physical sensations. Now...there will be a flurry of stray thoughts in your mind, all begging for your attention. This is natural. The mind is a very complex thing and you may get lost in them. Don't worry. You have not ruined anything. If you feel yourself getting lost, simply bring yourself back to the focus. If it is a familiar object in your head, like your bedroom lamp, it doesn't have to be visualised to perfection. You don't even have to see it. Just focus your mind on it and wait. What follows might be something like this:

Mind gets lost...bring it back to focus...mind gets lost...bring it back to focus...BANG! (you will experience a sudden shift in consciousness and you will know something is different - congrats as the lucid dream world is just around the corner).

Now, the above sounds long, but, I can assure you, you won't be waiting around for long. These days I don't even have to do that any more. You can separate from the body in less than a minute from the time that you go down to induce! I promise you!

Once you experience that sudden "shift", you can abandon the mental object you were focusing on. That only served as an aid to keep your mind away from bodily sensations and to engage with the mental. You may experience all sorts of hallucinations during this transition into the lucid dream state.

Separation: there are many ways of achieving a successful disassociation from the body. I usually roll over and out of the body slowly (sometimes fast and I apply aggression when I feel there is a resistance). To start with, do it subtly and as though you are moving physically but without using muscles. If you are going to roll, it seems best to start from the head as this causes the rest of the body to follow. If there is a perceived resistance, be forceful. This movement is not imagined, it is done with intent. Once you have succeeded, look around and check that you are in fact dreaming.

Alternatively, any hypnagogic imagery is a potential dream scene which can be entered lucidly.

I hope this helps! Good luck!

I have tried to get into the habit of reality tests (though I probably did not do them often enough...). I do remember doing a reality test in a dream, though I did not become lucid afterwards.

Set yourself different times of the day to perform reality checks. If, for example, toilets are a common feature in your dreams, then every time you go to the toilet you must perform a reality check.

Before you perform the reality check, get into the habit of asking yourself if you are dreaming and and then try to answer your question logically. Don't just say to yourself "of course I'm not dreaming because this feels real" because this defeats the purpose of what you are trying to do.

Remember, if you are readily dismissive in waking life, you will find yourself doing them same in the dream world. For example, checking a digital clock in a dream might reveal weird symbols but you may justify it by saying to yourself that the clock probably needs batteries and hence you have failed.

When you ask yourself "am I dreaming?" answer this by performing several checks. Peer at your index finger at a distance of 4-6 inches from your face for about 10-15 seconds. If within that time you notice a distortion, you are dreaming. Try to remember what you did before asking yourself the critical dream/reality question.

Do you remember what you were doing before? Do you remember getting up? Having had breakfast? Travelling to work or school/college? Speaking to anyone? If you have trouble remembering then you are most likely dreaming!!

Finally, look around and try to spot anomalies. Try to read text in a book/leaflet/poster twice (by looking away and looking back). Have things inexplicably changed from what they were like before? Be a dream detective!

Don't give up! Giving up is the biggest mistake you will be making and trust me, you will be missing out big time because this phenomenon can literally change your life. It is also a mistake to try too hard. Have a relaxed approach. If you are trying to have DILDs and make a suggestion to yourself before bedtime, don't say to yourself "I MUST have a lucid dream! There is no room for failure!" - rather say "I'd like to have a lucid dream tonight! Hopefully I will know when I am dreaming".

You can also try the MILD method and say to yourself that when you find yourself in an environment other than lying in bed in your bedroom, you will remember to perform reality checks.

There is more on the induction of DILDs and WILDs in Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge, by the way.

"I have even tried to listen to the meditation MP3 before bed, but I was never able to actually go into a dream."

Don't rely so much on this. You should be able to induce lucid dreams naturally without the aid of any gadget. Ultimately, even with the aid of technology like binaural beats, meditation tapes and NovaDreamer, the effort must come from us.

"Empty cognizance of one taste, suffused with knowing, is your unmistaken nature, the uncontrived original state. when not altering what is, allow it to be as it is, and the awakened state is right now spontaneously present."